


my eyes play tricks on me

by demonsorceress



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 23:16:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1706129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonsorceress/pseuds/demonsorceress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Jemma Simmons is literally the only thing Skye misses from her teenage years, and she can say Jemma was pretty much the only good part of Skye’s life during those years."</p>
            </blockquote>





	my eyes play tricks on me

**Author's Note:**

> This is a one-shot skimmons AU inspired by the prompt “best friends when they were little (teenagers) but one moved away and they run into each other again”. I posted in on tumblr a long time ago but wanted it to be here on AO3 too. Hope you like it! :)

An incoming call interrupts the game Skye was playing on her phone.

“Where are you?” Grant asks when she reluctantly picks up the call.

The tone of these first three words is enough for Skye to know something is off. The fact that he normally wouldn’t be asking where she is at this hour also helps. “I’m in the subway,” she answers patiently. “Everything alright?”

“Are you heading home?” He ignores her question.

“Yes, like I do every single day. Why you ask?” She insists, and this time he can’t escape the question.

“I have a surprise for you,” he says mysteriously. “Trust me, you’ll want to come home as fast as you can.” 

And with that he hangs up.

 

“Grant?” Skye calls out in disbelief. “What the hell,” she mutters, pushing the phone into her purse.

Skye guesses this surprise has something to do with the weird way he’s been acting since yesterday morning. When she asks what’s up with him, he says it’s something at work, but never goes into details. She knows it’s not work, though; he’s terrible at lying, no wonder he kept the phone call short.

Knowing that there’s a surprise waiting for her at home makes Skye feel like the subway is unusually slow. She taps her fingers against the surface of her phone, wondering what the surprise could be and wanting to dial Grant’s number and beg him to tell her already.

Given that she’s in a hurry, the elevator is obviously being held by some idiot in the last floor of the building. Impatient, she takes the stairs instead.

Considering Skye’s lazy lifestyle, four flights of stairs are enough to leave her fighting for air. Grant wouldn’t normally be home from work so soon, but she notices the lights are on. “I hope you have a really good reason because I just-“

Skye can’t finish her sentence when she sees what Grant was talking about. Once the door opens completely, she sees the surprise waiting for her in the middle of the living room, and it knocks the air out of her lungs. Skye hears the clatter of the keys in her hands falling to the ground as her jaw drops. She’s unable to move, just staring at what’s waiting for her.

“Hello, Skye.” The woman’s face lightens up with the most beautiful smile Skye has ever seen in her whole life.

A second later, Skye finds herself stumbling forward and hugging Jemma so tightly the other girl gasps. She thought about this several times, and being so impulsive definitely wasn’t in her plans. She wraps her arms around Jemma’s neck and lets out a delighted chuckle because she doesn’t think she’s ever felt so happy to see someone.

As she feels Jemma’s warm embrace, Skye can’t hold the tears that well in—this also wasn’t part of the way she imagined this reunion happening. She doesn’t know why Jemma came back, or whether she’s staying or just visiting, but right now she doesn’t care. All she can thing about is how much she missed everything about Jemma.

Jemma Simmons is literally the only thing Skye misses from her teenage years, and she can say Jemma was pretty much the only good part of Skye’s life during those years. Of course, there was Grant, but Skye didn’t become so close to him as she is today until Jemma left for England when she finished high school.

Being a foster kid made Skye’s childhood and teenage years miserable. She didn’t stay for more than a few months at each house, meaning she also didn’t stay long at each school. Being the outcast foster kid of the school didn’t help either, meaning she didn’t have a lot of friends. Scratch that, she didn’t have any friends, and didn’t care much about that, to be honest—better to be alone than in bad company was what she used to tell herself. That changed when she met Jemma, who turned out to be the only thing in Skye’s life that wasn’t unstable.

They met in high school on Jemma’s first day; she’d just moved from England due to her father’s job. Despite being the nicest girl Skye had ever met, Skye didn’t have time to believe she was too nice to put someone in their right place: during her very first day, when the two of them were chatting before one of their last periods, some asshole told Jemma to “stay away from the weirdo”, and Jemma’s unforgettable answer came along with a look and a smile that were polite, like she didn’t want to be rude, but so damn sarcastic, like he deserved it. “I don’t remember asking you for advice on who I should socialize with.”

Although Jemma stayed in the same school until her last year while Skye was constantly changing, they were inseparable. Skye used to spend more time at Jemma’s place than she did at her own foster houses, and Jemma’s parents were kind enough to treat her like family. Sometimes Skye would skip the last period—when she didn’t skip all of them—only so that she could go to Jemma’s school and they could walk to her home together and hang out for the rest of the afternoon. Whether they spent the days watching movies, playing games or studying together, or Skye was just watching Jemma do her homework, their friendship made Skye’s life drastically better.

Skye can’t deny it was seriously hard when Jemma left, not to say unbearable at first. She cried herself to sleep when Jemma told her she was going back to the UK when high school ended. She had already been admitted to her dream university in England and her father had asked to be transferred back there. Skye remembered perfectly the day Jemma came to her with the news.

“We are moving back in two months, as soon as I graduate,” Jemma had announced, a sad look in her eyes after giving Skye a long explanation of all the circumstances.

They’d been in Jemma’s room, sitting on her bed, and Skye hadn’t been able to show any reaction immediately. Two months? How was she supposed to deal with that? Skye felt quite literally like she had been given her something she hoped for her whole life, and then mercilessly took away from her.

Those two months went by so quickly it was unbelievable. They had been even closer that before, although that didn’t seem possible at first, and it wasn’t nearly as much as Skye felt she needed.

“We are going to talk every single day,” Jemma promised when one of their many sleepovers culminated in Skye’s “how am I supposed to stand my life without you here” moment.

And they did, but only for the first few months after Jemma moved. It got really difficult as it started getting complicated to keep in touch. Jemma was too busy studying, and the time zone difference didn’t help either. Skye felt terrible, but sometimes she’d beg Jemma to stay up a bit late so that they could talk, but she’d always end up telling her friend to go to sleep, and Jemma also felt bed for not having any time. Jemma obviously would never say something like that, but it was clear she had more important things to worry about, and Skye understood that.

It was inevitable; they started gradually losing contact. Skye got a job; Jemma was occupied with her brilliant academic life. They sadly went from trying to talk everyday to barely having an actual conversation a few times a year. Up until this day, they always send each other lovely messages on birthdays and special occasions. Skye would always send her congratulations when she heard about one of Jemma’s endless academic achievements, and even tell her how truly proud she was. Reading Jemma’s answers were the moments in which Skye missed her the most, and wished she could just see Jemma’s smile personally again.

Besides Jemma, Skye’s only close friend was Grant Ward and she can’t begin to describe how awful her life would be if she had never met him. He’s several years older than her, and they met when she was in high school and he was already graduated from college and working. He’s the embodiment of “tall, dark and handsome”, and seems pretty serious and boring at first but in reality is just a protective big brother once you get to know him. During the months between finishing high school and turning 18, Skye’s last foster family was seriously regretting opting for her instead of a child, meaning that she’d rather be anywhere but “home”. Thankfully, Grant was nice enough to let her spend a lot of time at his apartment, even when he was at work, eventually leading to her moving there when she turned 18. And for that, Skye considers herself lucky as hell.

Even though her life is much better now, Skye still misses Jemma more than she’d ever admit to herself. She misses all the little details that make Jemma the wonderful person she is. The way her eyes shine with excitement when she’s babbling about science. The fact that she’s so caring, so worried about everyone’s well-being, like she just wants everyone to be happy. The way that her endless passion for science makes Skye want to understand what she’s talking about, even though she wouldn’t care a bit if she was hearing it from anyone else. The way Jemma looked surprised every single time Skye told her she loves her, as if she didn’t expect someone to actually love her, which was ridiculous. In all truth, Skye never stopped loving Jemma just as much as she did five years ago.

Skye attempts to hold back the tears and forces herself to release Jemma from the embrace because she’s probably suffocating her, but she doesn’t want to let go. She doesn’t bother to wipe away the few tears that stream down her cheeks, so Jemma does it for her, raising a hesitant hand to gently touch Skye’s face, and Skye leans against the touch of her soft fingers like a needy puppy. It’s not even by far the first time Jemma has seen Skye cry, but definitely the first where Skye isn’t shedding sad tears.

Skye wants to say so many things and she doesn’t know where to begin. She places a hand over Jemma’s as Jemma takes hers out of Skye’s face, and holds it tightly for a moment before letting go.

Skye takes a deep breath and keeps staring at Jemma like she can’t believe what’s happening. Unable to form a better sentence that can compile everything she’s feeling, Skye goes with, “Holy shit, Jem.”

Jemma laughs and the sound is intoxicating. Skye feels like a recovering alcoholic seeing a bottle of scotch right after earning a bronze chip from AA. “I missed you too, Skye.”

Jemma feels a mix of utter shock and happiness. She had no idea Skye would have such an emotional reaction to seeing her again, and she wanted to ask Skye to hug her again and just stay like that for the next couple of hours. She was so afraid that she and Skye could never go back to being as close as they once were.

However, Skye’s warm hug was already the beginning of the process that wouldn’t take long.

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually the beginning of a way longer story that I planned for a week, but I got tired of the idea and couldn’t finish it. I quite liked this part (and I re-wrote it twice and didn't have the courage to just leave it on my folder), so I decided to post it as a one-shot. Also, I’m sorry for any mistakes, this wasn’t beta’d and English is my second language. Thank you for reading!


End file.
